Monday, June 3, 2013

(June 3 - June 9): College Ave Mile: NJ's Biggest Road Mile Set for Saturday Night

College Ave Mile: This Saturday Night
NJ's Biggest Road Mile Returns to Iconic College Ave on Rutgers Campus
New Brunswick-  On Saturday night, hundreds of local runners will converge on the hallowed roads of Rutgers University for the state's biggest road mile race, the College Ave Mile.  In addition to being a part of the RRCA Grand Prix, it is an official "Bring Back the Mile" event seen here.   Along with open mile races, it will play host to a variety of other events: a dunk tank, beer garden, BBQ, two relays, and five festival games.  Prizes will be College Ave Mile beach balls!

There will be ten individual races before the two relays: youth mile, elite women, elite men, sub-6:00, sub-7:00, sub-8:00, sub-9:00, sub-10:00, sub-thirteen, and the one mile walk.  From there, the two royal relay rumbles will go down: The One Mile Relay (2x half mile) and Two Mile Relay (2xmile).

Thanks to a generous New Jersey Road Runners Youth Grant, the youth race will include scores of youth from all over New Jersey, as their entry fees are subsidized.  This will include a large contingent of Highland Park youth, as this community has supported the GSTC with the use of their track facility..

In the elite women's race, Cheyenne Ogletree leads a stacked field ith a 4:59 already under her belt from last weekend.  A 4:51 miler from Rutgers, Ogletree looks to break the course record of 5:15.23 set by Jamie Liberti in 2012.  She will be chased by speedsters Alyssa Douma, Allison Dublinski, Chelsea Callan, Greta Sieve, Kristin Cupido, and Karen Auteri.

The elite men's race is wide open with a wide range of talented men lining up at the starting line.  Coming from a distance end is Ken Goglas, who has run the club's fastest 5k and steeplechase this year, along with Tim Morgan, Adin Mickle, Mike Anis, Paul Matuszak, Mike Fonder, and Steve-o Mennitt.  They will meet some stiff competition with pure milers Chris Heibell, Dennie Waite, Kyle Price, and Peter Bolgert.  Coming from the shorter sprint end are half milers Tony Harris, Mike Saparito, Jared Hanko, and Ricky Garcia.  

For generations the mile has been a classic race where endurance meets speed and for generations- the running community has embraced the mile as its favorite distance.  Consequently, runners have reflected on this event for generations.  Roger Bannister, the first human to ever break 4:00 on May 6th, 1955, once said, "The mile has all the elements of drama",  while John Landy stated, "The mile has a classic symmetry. It's a play in four acts", and John Walker famously asserted about this event, "The 800 meter record, the records in the 1000, the 1500, the 5000, the relays: no one remembers them. The mile, they remember. Only the mile." 


Team Runs
Monday- 5:30 track workout for tracksters (Highland Park HS)
Tuesday- 5:30 track workout for distance folks (HPHS)
Wednesday- 6:15 distance run at Morristown Running Company
Thursday- 5:30 distance run at Rutgers Student Center (NB)
Friday- 4:30 track workouts for distance folks (HPHS)
Saturday- COLLEGE AVE MILE 5:00pm-8:00pm
Sunday- 8:30 team run at River Road (just down the road from where 287 meets 202/206- parking lot besides River Road Park

Steady Striders & Couch to 5k by Amy Denholtz

The steady striders and couch to 5k group members will not be meeting for a regular group run this upcoming weekend, in favor of rallying for a great College Ave Mile race!  The following week, on Saturday June 15th, the group will have a track practice with GSTC Founder and Coach Chuck Schneekloth.  Good luck to all the steady striders running the CAM and remember to recruit your friends too!  Email Amy at adenholtz@gmail.com with any questions.


Quotes of the Week
"Because you sat in a chair and wouldn't play with us. like a grumpy mom."  -Daniel Sewning, taking a shot at Ken Walsh via FB

"Nationals will be fun, I can't wait. I took friday off so I wouldn't miss anything."  -Larry Saparito, via email, talking about his son and club nationals at the end of June 

"I'm really excited about this all, so many people from Rowan seem to be joining, which is amazing, and everyone on this team is really talented! Very awesome team."   -new GSTC member Kelsey Lewis, a 2013 Rowan graduate

"I moved some things around so I will be able to compete both days of the nationals meets, shot disc and hammer. I'm looking forward to helping win this championship."  -GSTC thrower John Wlasuk, via email.   It ain't easy making time for summer track when you're working away at your summer job...much props!

"Awesome. I'll all registered and ready to run fast."  -Dennie Waite, via FB, regarding the College Ave Mile

"Sorry, just reading this now. i'll be there at 3pm - shotgun!"  -Steve Mennit, FB post, 

TMA:  NJ's Most Feared Award
This week's first nomination goes to USATF-NJ columnist Madeline Bost.  We learned today that she reported in her Superhero Half Marathon preview weeks ago that the course record was run in its inaugural year, 2010, of 1:15:17 by a Karl O'Reilly.  Writing a race preview of a three-year race doesn't involve going into the ancient dead sea scroll archives here; GSTC'er Ryan Grote ran a blistering 1:11:19....last year, and second place finisher ran 1:14.  

The second goes to race director Joel Simpson of Miles for Music 20k.  It's been three months, and still no race prize money checks for our top-three finishing runners, no email with an update on it, etc.  6-8 weeks is one thing, but 12....well, perhaps this is what happens when races know they will be granted championship grand prix status by the USATF-NJ every year.     

Gold Star: Celebrating Our Members by Ashwin Anantharaman

John Welsh
John joined GSTC after Chuck saw him wearing a West Valley TC uniform at president's cup last year. Chuck and John had run for that club so Chuck used his charm and personality to convince John to check out GSTC. Before running he eats a chocolate power bar and has a coffee 2 hours before. He then proceeds to use the bathroom 1 hour before following it up with the traditional crumple race bib and shoe lace tuck. His Prs include 3k: 844, 5k: 1456, 10k: 3149(XC), 15k 4833, Marathon 2:40:15. His goal is to break 16 every year in the 5k and put together some good XC races as well as run Boston at one point. Outside of running he loves golf and mountain biking. He of course the traditional guy who obsesses over running, baseball and fantasy football. 


Sarah Schillaci 
Sarah joined GSTC after being a member of CPTC(GASP!!!!). After realizing that paying an 8 dollar toll to go to practice was pointless she found the coolest best looking club in America. Before races she warms up for 20 minutes and makes sure her blood caffeine level is through the roof. She is turning 30 next year and is excited to set some new goals and prs. Her prs now include.....5k:1826, 10k: 3838, 6k: 2300. Her goal is to pr for as long as possible since she believes you pr every 10 years. Her ultimate goal for next season though is to earn a mug from the Ashenfelter 8k for finishing in the top 100. Outside of running, Sarah enjoys watching a little television.

Heibell Leads Tracksters at West Chester
Jackson, Turner, Kadiyala Punch Ticket to Nationals
West Chester, PA-  If there's ever a time to get the hot hand....it's June.  And this is just what seems to be happening for GSTC miler Chris Heibell, as he ran a season best 3:54.96 and finished 12th of 18 athletes in the elite 1500m at Friday's John Hay Distance Festival.  If the GSTC has any chance of winning club nationals, they're going to need a clutch performance from Heibell--who finished 3rd in 2011 with a time of 3:52.  

Three athletes qualified for club nationals at the meet.  These qualifier included Chris Turner (200m/ 22.38), Dharan Kadiyala (800m/1:59.16), and Steve "Python" Jackson (3000m/8:57.67--qualifies for 5k). 

In total, thirty-four GSTC'ers laced up Friday night in their final tune-up before the USATF Regional Championships at Icahn Stadium June 15th.  Highlights included a fine showing in the men's elite 800m, as Tony Harris (1:52.26) lead a trio of fine performances, with Jared Hanko (1:53.12/PR) and Ricky Garcia (1:54.39) coming in 21st and 22nd, respectively.  In the mile, steeplers Kyle Price (4:21.86) and Peter Bolgert (4:22.15) finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.  Chris Schneider snagged 6th in the 3k in 8:56.88.

In the sprints, Erin LaCosta and Alexis Mbakwe placed 3rd and 5th, respectively, Turner and Julius Frederick (22.80) went 1-2 in the 200, and Frederick, Joe LaFleur, Kaseem Jackson, Will Alston, and Ray Austin went 2-3-4-5-6 in the men's open 400m.   



This Week in Training
Monday - comfortable run + 6-8x8-10sec hill sprints OR 4-6x in-and-out 150s
Tuesday - 6x1k @ goal 5k pace with equal rest
Wednesday - Steady-state run.  Cut back by 20%.
Thursday - super easy 40-60 mins + strides
Friday - 2 Miles at T pace, take a 5 min jog, then go 8x400 at 3k pace with 1:30 rest.
Saturday - same as Monday
Sunday - Long run - cut back the distance by 20%

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